Spring 2020

What glorious spring weather!  I do love these warmer, sunnier days.

An update on the neighbourhood mis-grievances.  Several of my neighbours were disappointed to hear the aggressive neighbour was no longer moving out.  I have been trying to be friendly, which has been rather difficult as he totally ignores my friendly greetings.  I’m afraid I don’t suffer fools lightly and one day when he ignored my light conversation I said “What? The cat got your tongue?” I didn’t feel good after saying it and felt I should respect the fact that he doesn’t want to talk to me (or other neighbours for that matter).  I thought he could at least be courteous and just acknowledge a friendly gesture, but then if he wanted to hold a grudge just because the police asked me for a statement of his bad behaviour, then it’s his problem.  I do feel sorry that he can’t move on and be friendly with neighbours; instead he has barricaded himself with partitions and heavy shade cloth so we can’t see into his yard.  It’s really very sad.  I was of the mind to continue my cheerful greetings just to rile him, but that evening the Lord gave me the scripture from Mark 12:31 “Love your neighbour as yourself.”  Well, I don’t think the message could have been any clearer!  I repented and asked the Lord for His wisdom on how to love this prickly neighbour and started praying for his heart to be healed.

Not long after this the police came knocking on my door again for me to sign the witness papers, giving me a copy.  It was quite funny; as I greeted them at the door, the officer with his finger to his lips, signalling me to be quiet, asked if he could come in so that my neighbour didn’t see him.  Stating that he didn’t want to stir up any more trouble with my narcissistic neighbour.  Very considerate of him.  That night, when as I was about to file the papers, I realised it was a summons to attend court at the end of October!  Gggrrrrr!  The officer had previously said we probably wouldn’t need to go to court.  Obviously, my neighbour is denying what he had done.  I had a chat to the others in the complex later, to arrange us all going together.  Kath said the police had mentioned that afterwards we can all go for a coffee to celebrate it’s over.  I had to laugh.

Good news for our outreach programme.  The church agreed to have the training programme just the week before the scheduled training event.  This really didn’t give us much time to notify people.  A message went out in our e-newsletter and church bulletin a week before the event.  That Sunday the pastor preached a powerful message on being bold, ending with a call to all those who wanted to be bolder to raise their hands.  I thought this was leading to an invitation to the following week’s outreach training but alas, he missed the opportunity.  I was so disappointed.  After the service I asked many of the congregation if they had put their hands up, then asked them to read the newsletter inviting them to the following Sunday’s training.  I also spoke to the pastor to tell him how disappointed I was.  He was very apologetic as he too realised he had missed the opportunity.  Before leaving that morning, I hunted down the pastor of the evening service to ask if he could please make a special announcement for the training.  I later heard he had done a great job of letting his congregation know.  Unfortunately I had no inquiries during the week from anyone at the church, although I did invite two people from other churches. In total four new people come along for training.

The Friday before the presentation, I once again went to Trigg Beach to see if there was anyone open to hear the Gospel.  I stopped to chat to a few people but most were either busy or not interested.  I noticed a Chinese woman standing alone and approached her with some light chit-chat.  Her name was Sarah, from Beijing, visiting Perth as a student with YWAM. (A Christian organisation called Youth With A Mission) I laughed and called Phil, who had accompanied me, over to introduce him.  I then explained why I had come to chat to her.  Phil, who had previously been in YWAM was also interested in what she and her team were doing at Trigg.  She said the team were making a movie to be sent back to China for a competition.

In the week following the presentation, we went through a challenging time. The WA coordinator and the founder requested to join our WhatsApp outreach group.  I have a problem with “chat groups” and all the messaging.  I think they get over-used, instead of being kept just for the essential reason for having a connect group.  It seems people like to message any and everything not related, and often carry on a chat with individual members within the group instead to taking it out of the group for a private chat to one another.  This really frustrates me. I have plainly stated that this group is only for arranging a time and place and to see who is coming to outreach.  After that, if only a few people are involved, then there can be private messaging between those few, NOT the whole group!  This means people aren’t constantly receiving messages that don’t relate to them.  This had been working very well until the others were added.

Anyway, against the check in my spirit about adding those outside of our church group, I added the two leaders.  Well this started a barrage of extra messages, including video meetings.  Another of my concerns is that the pastors at church, who were only just warming up to the idea of introducing our outreach group to the church, would not like other doctrinal views to be shared with their members.  I contacted both leaders privately to explain that I would prefer to filter what went through the group.  The co-founder explained their position, saying people with different views filtered what suits them.  He went on to say “Otherwise just delete me from your group” , which I took literally, and deleted him from our group.  Well I didn’t expect his response to me privately:  “It’s just unheard of to consider that the co-founder of the ministry you are aligned with is barred from your group. Nowhere else in Australia has this occurred amongst our many groups”. I was so shocked, I didn’t respond or answer his phone call.  I wanted to speak to my pastor first, who confirmed that I was doing the right thing, as we were only just presenting it to the pastors and elders and needed to take things slowly.  I then explained things to the WA rep and asked her to talk to the founder.  The following day my pastor spoke to them both, to let them know the situation.  Later, I sent a message explaining our WhatsApp outreach group had been set up solely for church members, quite some time before he and the WA rep were invited to join.

I must admit it’s been a bit stressful.  I praise God for the support of my pastors and their wisdom in this situation and for the Word in Hebrews 13:17 which says “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.”  It’s good to know it’s not me making all the decisions on my own and that I can defer to the pastors.  The future plans to introduce this outreach at church are still before the pastoral team.  Eventually we hope to invite other churches to join our North Beach group, but till then we will be taking things slowly.

I have also been added to another of the organisation’s groups, this time for the leaders! I must admit I have not even checked messages in this group, other than on the first day to say thank you to people who welcomed me onto it.  I have also put all the groups on ‘silent’ so I’m not constantly bombarded!

We are still getting bombarded with messages on our group outreach; links and the like from the co-founder and WA leader, including changing our group logo.  It’s very frustrating, but I’m sure the Lord is teaching me patience, long suffering and perseverance, whilst chipping away at my pride.

We have been out for a few ‘campaigns’ as they call them.  There have been some presentations, but not many, as people are either too busy to listen or not interested.  One of our new presenters, Phil, was thrilled he was able to lead someone to Christ on his first presentation.  A young Indian couple has also come to Christ and are now being followed up by friends in Kelmscott.

Beanie sales have slowed, although I have had a few requests for certain colours, plus a balaclava for a mountain climber and a doggie beanie!  Quite a few people from church have also bought beanies and contributed towards Solomon’s renovations.  We have raised just over half of our goal.

What a beautiful month September has been here in Perth.  Some of the bulbs, including the jonquils and snowbells, have finished flowering; others like the bluebells are blooming.  All the growth and flower buds on the deciduous trees are bursting into life.  Those I thought might not have survived have pleasantly surprised me with new shoots, including the jujube and kiwi berry.  I’m pleased to report both the plants I have done some bonsai work on are flourishing, as are all my newly transplanted roses. The whole garden is a-buzz with bees, bird calls and the smell of scented flowers.

Spring is also a season to be cautious of the magpies, which are known to swoop unsuspected passers-by, but strangely enough not those they know.  I’ve heard that magpies have face recognition, which means they can recognise the locals they get to know.  There are several family groups which I jog past on my regular route through the bush.  Many don’t bother moving out of the way.  Where I stop to do some bench presses, one magpie came up underneath the bench to catch a bug he had spotted.  I was quite surprised he would come so close!

When I’m out jogging, the pink and grey galahs are also becoming very accustomed to me running past them as they graze on the grasses by the side of the road.  They are such characters; they are known as the clowns of the bird family because of their antics.

The bush at this time of the year springs to life with wild flowers. The ducks have flown in to the swamp, their ducklings now hatched and following them onto the open areas to graze. They too ignore me as I pass, although the drakes often show their protective manner by hissing and coming after me to show they are protecting their families. I’ve seen both the Australian Wood Duck with their brood of 7 ducklings and the Pacific Black Duck, who had only one duckling, which has since disappeared.  I’m hoping it’s not been eaten by one of the dogs which run off-leash.

Some exciting news for the next update will be my trip to Newman.  Do you remember the first lot of beanies I knitted?  They went to the Red Dirt Blue Sky. This is where I hope to visit, as I travel up with the Hearn’s for a week’s adventure.

Photos:  1. Wisteria in blossom,    2. Wisteria in bud    3. My Bible study group    4. Bluebells amongst the pineapples    5. Magnolia Port Wine a beautiful scented flower smells like bubble gum    6. Pear blossoms    7. One of my transplanted roses    8. A haircut ready for the hotter northern temperatures

Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise the Lord for His continual blessings.  For this beautiful spring weather and the wonder of His beauty all around us.

Please pray my neighbour will learn to forgive, to release his grudges against us all and that he will agree to attend anger management counselling.  Pray the judge will make the right decision.

Please pray for our North Beach Outreach group’s success and for the church’s participation.

Please pray for our trip to the Pilbara, that we will accomplish that which the Lord has sent us to do and that it will be hassle free, safe travelling and a blessing to us all.

Please continue to pray for health care workers around the world, for a vaccine and for all those working towards bringing the nations back into productivity.

Pray for the continuing unrest that has enveloped our world.  For those without hope, to come to the knowledge of peace and love that can only be found in Christ.

Please continue to pray for Emma and her treatment for leukaemia.  She is on a second bout of chemo and therapy, pray she will see speedy results and for the Lord’s healing.

Pray that those who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus will have their eyes opened to His love, peace and saving grace.

I praise God for all our supportive friends and prayer partners as we help each other through these difficult times.  We all need each another in different ways and it’s reassuring and encouraging to know friends are not too far away, thanks to technology and prayer.